Before the first jump ball tipped off the season on Christmas, this was the season everyone thought the Knicks would take a step forward. Maybe only to the second round of the playoffs, but they were going to be good. At least the third best team in the East.

Instead, they had to fight their way into the seven seed, landed the Heat in the first round and got pushed aside pretty easily in five games.

It wasn’t always pretty. However, through the roller coaster of a season an identity and winning basketball emerged near the end. They played good defense, they ran the offense through Carmelo Anthony but there were shooters around him and it work. And for one playoff game ‘Melo and Amare Stoudemire worked together.

There are some Knicks fans looking for big changes — if ‘Melo and Amare don’t work then trade Stoudemire; bring in Phil Jackson to coach; go get Steve Nash.

I think you will only see the last thing on that list.

I believe the reports that the Knicks are in talks to make Mike Woodson the permanent coach. Woodson was 18-6 to close out the season, he is a college teammate of GM Glen Grunwald, he has the backing of Isiah Thomas who is whispering in owner James Dolan’s ear, and most importantly of all he has the support of Carmelo Anthony. Put simply, ‘Melo played hard for him where he would not for Mike D’Antoni. I still believe that Jackson does not want to return to the sidelines — not even for the Knicks job — and if Dolan can’t have him he’ll go with Woodson.

After that the core of the roster is basically set. Iman Shumpert is the starting two guard (once he returns from knee surgery), ‘Melo at the three, Stoudemire the four and Tyson Chandler the five. I don’t think they can move Stoudemire even if they wanted to (too big an uninsured contract) so Woodson needs to find a way to make him and ‘Melo work together. Jeremy Lin is a restricted free agent but he is a marketing cash cow for the team (plus a nice player) and they will not let him go. J.R. Smith may be gone and the bench needs to be filled out (expect Steve Novak and Landry Fields to be retained) but those are bench role players, the core starters are set.

Except they need a veteran starting point guard to go with them.

New York will go hard at Steve Nash. They can’t offer him a big contract (they are already over the salary cap) but they can say if he wants to contend he makes these Knicks a contender. Nash already lives in New York in the offseason.

The only question is one of fit — if you have the ball in Nash’s hands to set up the offense it is not in Anthony’s hands. And Anthony is only happy when the offense runs through him. Asking him to work off the ball while Stoudemire runs the pick-and-roll with Nash is how D’Antoni lost ‘Melo (just with a different point guard). You can still give Anthony the rock when Nash sits or call his number some trips down, but either way the fit can be strained.

However, this is Nash coming in, not Jeremy Lin or Mike Bibby. This is a two-time MVP. Woodson can push ‘Melo to share, and Nash’s three point shooting would provide spacing when Anthony does drive from isolation.

Nash can work in New York. It will take some sacrifices by everyone, but it can. If Nash decides to play elsewhere, look for the Knicks to go after Jason Kidd or try to trade for another veteran point guard. But Nash is the big fish, the one guy still playing at an elite level who might come for less money and be able to push this team forward.

It’s not a lot of changes — next season’s Knicks may look a lot like this season’s version. But there could be one change at the point and if so the Knicks become very interesting.

In fact, in Saturday’s dunk contest, he didn’t look like a dunker at all.

The Pacers star missed all three attempts of his first dunk, and a Black Panther mask was by far the biggest draw of his second. Oladipo was eliminated after the first round.

Maybe Dennis Smith Jr. wasn’t the only eliminated dunker who left something in his bag. This Oladipo dunk – 180 degrees, throwing ball off the backboard with his left hand while in mid-air, dunking with his right hand – while preparing in Los Angeles was awesome.

A statement released Wednesday by the NFL and NBA clubs says their 90-year-old owner is resting comfortably at Ochsner Medical Center, a hospital which also serves as a major sponsor and which owns naming rights to the teams’ training headquarters.

Benson has owned the New Orleans Saints since 1985 and bought the New Orleans Pelicans in 2012.

In recent years, Benson has overhauled his estate plan so that his third wife, Gayle, would be first in line to inherit control of the two major professional franchises.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he’d be surprised if Kawhi Leonard played again this season, a stark reversal from just a month ago. Back then, even while announcing Leonard was out indefinitely with a quad injury, the San Antonio coach said Leonard wouldn’t miss the rest of the season.

After spending 10 days before the All-Star break in New York consulting with a specialist to gather a second opinion on his right quad injury, All-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard bears the burden of determining when he’s prepared to play again, sources told ESPN.

Leonard has been medically cleared to return from the right quad tendinopathy injury, but since shutting down a nine-game return to the Spurs that ended Jan. 13, he has elected against returning to the active roster, sources said.

The uncertainty surrounding this season — and Leonard’s future which could include free agency in the summer of 2019 — has inspired a palpable stress around the organization, league sources said.

At first glance, this sounds like Derrick Rose five years ago. Even after he was cleared to play following a torn ACL, the then-Bulls star remained mysterious about when he’d suit up. His confidence in his physical abilities seemed to be a major issue, and he was never the same player since (suffering more leg injuries).

But the Spurs famously favor resting players to preserve long-term health. They seem unlikely to rush back Leonard. They might even sit players who want to play more often. And Leonard isn’t Rose.

Still, it’s clear something is amiss in San Antonio. Maybe not amiss enough to end Leonard’s tenure there, but the longer this lingers, the more time for tension to percolate.